Two African members of CFR's Global Board of Advisors discuss the geopolitical and geoeconomic issues facing the continent today. CFR's Global Board of Advisors, founded in 2012, fosters a dialogue between business and global leaders from the United States and abroad.

There is a leadership struggle underway within Boko Haram, the violent, extremist movement that has claimed more than 20,000 lives since 2011 and destabilized the secular Nigerian state and its neighbors. The personal struggle between Abubakar Shekau and Abu Musab al-Barnawi reflects in part the rivalry between Boko Haram and a splinter group, “Ansaru,” and are part of a complex, intra-Muslim conflict across the Sahel, including competition between rival al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the Islamic State.

Jane Nelson and Sarah Thorn will discussstrategies to grow women’s entrepreneurship worldwide, with a particular emphasis on the role of the private sector. They will address the importance of public-private partnerships to train female entrepreneurs and facilitate the integration of women-owned businesses into global supply chains. This meeting is part of a high-level series on women and development, generously sponsored by the ExxonMobil Foundation.

In his memoir, The Lion Awakes, Ashish Thakkar describes how, as a young entrepreneur selling computer parts across Africa in the 1990s, he noticed that flights within the conti­nent seemed to take longer than the distances on a map would suggest. “Were the planes slower?” he wondered.

John Campbell discusses 'Morning in South Africa', his new book that introduces post-apartheid South Africa to an international audience and argues that South Africa’s future is bright and that its democratic institutions will weather its current lackluster governance.

The Sub-Saharan Security Tracker (SST) draws on data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) Project, which documents political conflict across Africa. ACLED collects and codes reports of political violence from the media as well as local and international organizations.

The Sub-Saharan Security Tracker (SST) draws on data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) Project, which documents political conflict across Africa. ACLED collects and codes reports of political violence from the media as well as local and international organizations.

Last week, Nigeria’s Senate passed President Muhammadu Buhari’s proposed 2016 budget, which projected a deficit of $15 billion due to falling oil prices. In an email interview, Matthew Page, an international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, discussed the impact of falling oil prices on Nigeria’s economy and politics.

2015 Annual Report

Learn more about CFR’s mission and its work over the past year in the 2015 Annual Report. The Annual Report spotlights new initiatives, high-profile events, and authoritative scholarship from CFR experts, and includes a message from CFR President Richard N. Haass.Read and download »